Lucky To Be Alive of the Day: World-renowned wingsuit flyer Jeb “The Birdman” Corliss survived a harrowing, 200-foot near-freefall after BASE jumping off Cape Town’s Table Mountain.
“He managed to release his emergency chute and we believe he would have died without it,” said Table Mountain spokesman Merle Collins.
The entire ordeal was caught on tape by an HBO camera crew.
This was Corliss’s second jump off the South African landmark. It was unclear what went wrong, but his jumping partner Joby Ogwyn suggested Corliss may have either hit a ledge or been a victim of the elements.
The daredevil is currently resting in a private hospital with two broken legs. “I saw him in the emergency room and asked whether I could release details of his condition,” said a spokesperson for the hospital. “He smiled at me and said ‘Tell them I feel the best I ever have’.”
